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Serious_Fun
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 1171
Location: terra incognita
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 Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 6:43 am Post subject: POLLUTION |
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We all are aware of the serious problem of pollution in the Asian nations that we may live/work in....
are you hanging on in Hong Kong?  Tolerating Taipei? Bearing with Bangkok? Suffering Singapore?
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| Pollution in Asia is altering global weather patterns by creating larger clouds and more intense storms, a new study says. |
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/03/070306-pollution-storms.html
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| Pollution from Asia is helping generate stronger storms over the North Pacific, according to new research. |
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17474380/
What are your thoughts on this phenomenon? Do you have any tips/suggestions on how to deal with this threat to our respiratory systems?
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Travel Zen
Joined: 02 Sep 2004
Posts: 634
Location: Good old Toronto, Canada
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| Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 11:28 pm Post subject: |
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The worst I've experienced was when i was living in Mumbai. The taxis (autorickshaws) were spewing out the worst fumes on the streets. For the first week, I actually lost my voice because of the street pollution.
How to deal with it? If you are living in a city and have to travel, I don't see how you can evade pollution altogether...but you can take precautions. *cough* |
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Serious_Fun
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 1171
Location: terra incognita
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| Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 1:54 am Post subject: |
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| Travel Zen wrote: |
The worst I've experienced was when i was living in Mumbai. The taxis (autorickshaws) were spewing out the worst fumes on the streets. For the first week, I actually lost my voice because of the street pollution.
How to deal with it? If you are living in a city and have to travel, I don't see how you can evade pollution altogether...but you can take precautions. *cough* |
I feel better about my current surroundings once I return from a less developed region. I recently spent a few weeks cruising around Myanmar/Burma...the dust/pollution combination was so bad that I had a sore throat every day with lots of hacking and wheezing coughs. BUT: once I returned to Bangkok and Taipei everything seemed so clean and fresh!  
I haven't resorted to wearing a mask yet...although it is tempting.
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DNK
Joined: 22 Jan 2007
Posts: 236
Location: the South
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| Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:46 pm Post subject: |
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| When I visited Chennai I caved in and wore a mask when I was on the roads. Sure, I looked like an idiot, but it's not like I wasn't being stared at already... |
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Serious_Fun
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 1171
Location: terra incognita
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| Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 6:31 am Post subject: |
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interesting article re: pollution in Asian rivers:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/IC24Ad01.html
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| More than half of all the industrial waste and sewage in China flows into a single waterway, the Yangtze. |
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| About 450 million people draw water, food and electricity supplies from the Yangtze alone.... |
here is a lovely photo taken of the floating waste found in (on?) the Yangtze:
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Vanica
Joined: 31 Aug 2006
Posts: 368
Location: North Carolina
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| Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 2:00 am Post subject: |
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I once saw a satellite photo of the world with a map superimposed -- you could clearly see cities by their pollution and China was REAL BAD, though US was very bad as well, followed by Europe, South Africa, Japan and more. The Congo has some problems, too, wonder what's going on there.
The photo was from the University of Heidelberg, SCIAMACHY if that means something to someone, and I saw it also on www.newscientist.org or com
Does someone know how to show it on the forum? |
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Vanica
Joined: 31 Aug 2006
Posts: 368
Location: North Carolina
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gugelhupf
Joined: 24 Jan 2004
Posts: 575
Location: Jabotabek
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| Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 3:58 am Post subject: |
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Jakarta is a place for year-round smog and pollution. I live on the outskirts where street-level pollution isn't so bad but I rarely have to use sunscreen thanks to the UV filtering effect of photochemical smog! I brought bottles of the stuff with me and ended up taking some back with me to the UK for a holiday where I still managed to get sunburnt on my neck.
KL and the western side of peninsular Malaysia, also Singapore, can be unbearable during the Sumatra dry season (peaks around July-September) when the smoke from burning rainforest blows across the Melaka strait. Were the smoke to drift over Jakarta I suspect the Indonesian government might actually do something about it. |
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Vanica
Joined: 31 Aug 2006
Posts: 368
Location: North Carolina
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| Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 1:21 am Post subject: |
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| gugelhupf wrote: |
| Jakarta is a place for year-round smog and pollution. I live on the outskirts where street-level pollution isn't so bad but I rarely have to use sunscreen thanks to the UV filtering effect of photochemical smog! I brought bottles of the stuff with me and ended up taking some back with me to the UK for a holiday where I still managed to get sunburnt on my neck. |
I had the same experience in Bangkok, sitting next to the hotel pool for days and weeks and -- nothing! |
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Serious_Fun
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 1171
Location: terra incognita
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Serious_Fun
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 1171
Location: terra incognita
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| Posted: Sat May 12, 2007 6:05 am Post subject: 10% of Yellow River flow is raw sewage |
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http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/news/englishnews/20070512/news_20070512_56_399961.htm
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Mainland says 10 per cent of Yellow River flow is raw sewage
2007-05-12 HKT 04:08
A mainland environmental group says untreated sewage from factories and urban centres now accounts for ten percent of the Yellow River's flow. The Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs says the volume of liquid waste flowing into China's second longest river has doubled in the past twenty-five years. |
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Serious_Fun
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 1171
Location: terra incognita
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Llamalicious
Joined: 11 May 2007
Posts: 150
Location: Rumah Makan Sederhana
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| Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 12:55 pm Post subject: |
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Now, now, Gugelhupf, I really do think you're being terribly unfair to Jakarta:
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| Jakarta recorded 20 days of clean air in 2005, up from 18 days in 2004. |
An 11% increase in clean air days! That's huge!
As to your claim of the Indonesian government doing nothing about the problem, are you not aware that there have been air monitors installed in Jakarta?
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| The monitoring units, which consist of screens and a supporting computer network, were purchased with a grant from the Swedish government and installed in Senayan and Kemayoran in Central Jakarta, Pondok Indah in South Jakarta and at the offices of the East and West Jakarta municipalities in 2000. |
And I'm sure they work perfectly.
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| On Wednesday, however, it was announced that most of the existing air monitors in the city have been broken for some time. |
Hey!
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| The city administration admitted that it had allocated only Rp 600 million this year for the operation of the five stations, far lower than the minimum Rp 400 million a unit needed. |
Shut up!
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The telephone lines at the Kemayoran and Pondok Indah stations that send data to the center station at BPLHD do not work properly, and buildings and human activity near the monitors can affect the readings they take.
"Smoke produced by the canteen (near the East Jakarta monitor), for example, will cause a higher pollution index," she said. |
Oh she said it, did she? Well, I'm sure whoever she is she has no real idea about -
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| Rini Suryani, a spokesperson from the City Environment Management Board (BPLHD) |
God damn it. . . |
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Cardinal Synn
Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 586
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| Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 9:56 am Post subject: |
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| I remember driving past one of those pollution monitors in central Jakarta regularly (when it was working). It made for depressing reading. These kinds of public monitors usually just seem to confirm what you already know - that most Asian cities are too rancid to walk in, so you have to drive everywhere, thus making them even more rancid. |
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Serious_Fun
Joined: 28 Jun 2005
Posts: 1171
Location: terra incognita
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| Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 1:56 pm Post subject: |
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http://www.chinapost.com.tw/international/111167.htm
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| Many of China's lakes and rivers are threatened by run-off from fertilizers, dumped industrial waste and untreated sewage. Algae blooms can burst out in water rich in nutrients from farm and domestic run-off. Xinhua cited experts as saying low water levels this year had encouraged the outbreak. |
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